


Andrew's Crew

by DarkWarriorProgram (KoolKat_SuperStar_DareDevil), DorianBlackwall, KaitoKitsune



Series: Ghosts of the Spectres [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, But mostly angst, Canonical Character Death, Earthborn (Mass Effect), Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Post-Virmire, Ruthless (Mass Effect), Virmire (Mass Effect)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-05 07:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18361583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoolKat_SuperStar_DareDevil/pseuds/DarkWarriorProgram, https://archiveofourown.org/users/DorianBlackwall/pseuds/DorianBlackwall, https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaitoKitsune/pseuds/KaitoKitsune
Summary: Andrew Shepard lost a lot of people in a short time, and each of them took a part of him with them. He was called many things: Commander, the renegade with a kind heart, the Ammo Master, but most important to him, friend.





	1. Kaidan's Loss

_"It's the right choice and you know it, Ash"_   
It had been Andrew's choice. Alenko or Williams. Kaidan or Ashley. Andrew had eventually made the nigh impossible decision to leave Kaidan behind, telling Joker to fly the Normandy away. His eyes burned with unshed tears even as the surface of the planet below burned with the fiery explosion of the nuke. Andrew shoved his feelings down in order to help Williams - Ashley - with what she was almost certainly going through. He had to be strong, for Ashley, for everyone else, he had to maintain his rough exterior. Andrew couldn't let any of them see him break. He learned long ago that if you show weakness, others will exploit it. Only when no one was watching, only then could he let out the agony of having a piece of his heart torn out. He'd always been told not to get attached... Sometimes he wished he'd listened...


	2. The Two-Year Gap

**Joker**  
He should have listened. He should have left when they told him. Part of him had known it was a lost cause at that point, but he refused to believe it. And now because of his stubbornness Shepard was dead. The Commander had shoved him into the last escape pod just as the Normandy was wracked with explosions. Tears left his eyes as he heard Andrew suffocating in the vacuum of space over the comms. In that moment Joker hated himself for causing his friend’s death. Shepard could have left him in the bridge, should have saved himself when Joker was refusing to leave, but he wasn’t that kind of person. The pilot sat there in silence as he cried for his friend’s death.

 **Liara**  
When Andrew had ordered her to get to the escape pods, she’d been a little upset that he’d talked to her like that. If she had stopped to think for a moment she would have realized it was because he was worried about her. She heard Shepard shouting at Joker to leave over the open comms and felt the same kind of fear seep into her. She wanted to yell at him to go, to leave the stubborn pilot behind; but she also knew that he wouldn’t do that. When the sound of him struggling to breathe came over the comms, a wave sadness slammed into her like nothing she’d ever felt before. Liara was listening to Andrew die and there was nothing she could do to save her love. Since meeting him they’d been in plenty of life or death situations and had come out each time. Not this one though. She’d fallen for one of the sweetest people she’d ever met, and she’d fallen hard. Now she was hearing him die alone in the black, endless void of space. The thing she regretted most was hesitating so long to express her feelings for him. If she had gathered her courage sooner she would’ve had more time with him. Liara knew that it didn’t matter how much time they’d had together; it would never be long enough, but for her it was long enough to last forever. The asari knew that Andrew wouldn't want her grieving forever, and maybe she’d fall in love with someone again centuries from now. Even if she did, Andrew Shepard would always remain her first love; and her first heartbreak.

 **Ashley**  
Her relationship with Shepard had been strained ever since Virmire; ever since he chose to save her over Kaidan. She would always be grateful to him for saving her, but it’ll always be tainted with the sliver of guilt that her life came at the cost of someone else’s. Andrew had done his best to comfort her- in his own rough way- but she wasn’t sure she’d be able to forgive him for letting someone else die when it should have been her. As she listened to the fading, shallow breathing she realized she already had; now it was too late to tell him. The gasping breaths over the comms signaled that she’d never get the chance; told her she’d never be able to tell him how much it meant to her that he saved her life. Ashley knew Shepard was aware of her gratitude, but she’d never actually told him.  
_“I am a part of all that I have met;_  
_Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'_  
_Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades_  
_For ever and forever when I move.”_  
Andrew Shepard was rushing off to the next adventure constantly, barely stopping to eat or sleep. The tears began to fall as she hoped wherever he was in the afterlife, it was as exciting and unknown and dangerous as he had lived.

 **Garrus**  
It had been a few months since Garrus left the Normandy and reapplied for Spectre status. After seeing what Andrew had been able to accomplish without all the red tape to hold him back, the turian wanted nothing more than to be able to do the same. Rejoining C-Sec wasn’t ideal but at least he was still helping, even in a small way. He was on patrol around Zakera Ward when he heard. _“...SSV Normandy was shot down by an unknown ship.”_ Garrus stopped dead in his tracks he processed the words coming from the news terminal. He jolted out of his thoughts and focused on the report. _“...resulted in at least 10 casualties and is likely to increase before the week’s end. Among them is the famed Commander Shepard...”_ His mind screamed that it wasn’t possible. Shepard was the toughest damn soldier he’s ever known. Garrus had seen him charge Geth while getting shot at, seen him beat a Colossus to death, and survive the Mako (and that was a feat itself considering the man drove like a maniac). There’s no way something like an attack from some ship would take him out. It just couldn’t. The turian stood frozen in front of the news terminal as the words echoed in his head. _“SSV Normandy was shot down… at least 10 casualties… among them the famed Commander Shepard…”_ He felt numb as he walked back to his apartment, uncaring of the consequences. _“Normandy was shot down… 10 casualties… among them Commander Shepard…”_ Garrus closed the door behind him as it finally sank in. Shepard was dead. Andrew was _dead_. He leaned against the closed door as his knees gave out under the weight of grief. Over their many adventures in their effort to stop Saren, the man had become his best friend. The sound that echoed through the silent apartment was one of pure grief, agony and loss.

 **Tali’Zorah**  
Returning to life among the Migrant Fleet almost seemed dull after spending so many months aboard the Normandy hunting down a rogue Spectre. Tali wouldn’t have it any other way though. She could never leave her people for good. The news reached her as the fleet was heading toward the Valhallan Threshold through so much static it almost couldn’t be heard. _“...ews… was ...ported… the SS... Nor...ndy ..s shot ...wn… un...own ship.”_ Even with it mostly lost to the static, and she was used to deciphering the static-filled sentences of the Galactic News, Tali understood what was said with a grim clarity. She immediately rushed to the radio to get a better signal. “...t thi... ...me” Adjust. _“...s b…”_ Worse. Adjust. _“c...firm... t...t”_ Better. Adjust. _“th... event res...lted in”_ Almost. Adjust. _“...t l..st 10 casualties…”_ Just a little more. _“...nd is ...kely… ...crea…”_ Too much. _“...fore the week’s end.”_ There. _“Among them is the famed Commander Shepard, who saved the Citadel during the Geth attack and was named the first human Spectre.”_ Tali replayed the words in her head, filling in the missing syllables; a couple sentences standing out amongst the static-garbled speech. _“SSV Normandy was shot down. 10 casualties. Among them Commander Shepard.”_ She reached out and turned the radio off with shaky hands. “Keelah,” she whispered in disbelief. The quarian retired to her quarters for the night, the desire to do something drained right out of her. “Keelah se’lai, Shepard,” Tali whispered. She knew that it was too late to say goodbye to her temporary captain, knew that he couldn’t hear her, but those three words made the weight on her heart lessen just a fraction.

 **Wrex**  
When Wrex heard that the Normandy was shot down it had been weeks since the event. In fact he probably wouldn’t have ever known if it hadn’t been for Uvenk’s news update report. “...and some Alliance ship was destroyed in Terminus system a couple weeks ago.” Usually he just tuned Uvenk out, pretending to listen to whatever was happening in rest of the galaxy. The mention of the Alliance and Terminus immediately grabbed his attention. “What’s that about an Alliance ship?”  
“One was shot down in the Terminus system.”  
“Which one,” he growled, even though the sinking feeling in his gut told him he already knew.  
“Nomady or something,” came the advisor’s reply. Wrex felt as if his blood had turned to ice. There was no doubt that the ship that was shot down was Shepard’s Normandy, the same ship he spent months hunting Saren on.  
“Any casualties,” Wrex asked hoping that he was wrong, but he felt like part of him already knew the answer.  
“A bunch of crew and the Commander. Now about the-”  
“Dismissed.”  
“But I-”  
“Dismissed,” Wrex growled at the other krogan, getting up to leave himself. Wrex immediately went to his quarters. Once alone he thought about what he’d just heard. The commander had gone down with his ship. The krogan had seen Shepard pull off the impossible, taking down an army with a handful of misfits and a couple guns, had been one of the misfits who helped. Andrew may have been rough around the edges, but the same could be said of any of his people. Most of humanity didn’t care about the other races and the other races don’t really care about each other either. But it was almost like Shepard didn’t see their race. He’d treated everyone in the crew as an equal; krogan, turian, quarian, asari, human. Every member of his crew had mattered to him. What’s more, he took an interest in each one of their individual races, always asking questions about the quarian’s history (Tali), the turian’s days as C-Sec (Garrus), the asari’s culture (Liara), he would even ask about Wrex’s own past as a mercenary. The krogan may not have known many humans, but he did know that Andrew is- was- a rare kind of being, human or otherwise. If he was being honest, he was actually upset that the man had died. Shepard had taken six strangers from all different races and with all different skills, and turned them into an unstoppable fighting force. It had taken quite some time for everyone to get used to each other’s fighting style and strengths. By the time they were heading to Virmire everyone was able to work almost flawlessly with the others, even Wrex and the turian. When he went to the Citadel to kill Fist, he never would have thought it would end up with him fighting alongside a turian, a quarian and an asari. Until he met Shepard he hadn’t known what it was like to not have to look over your shoulder for a knife in the back. The human had trusted each of them to have his back right from the start even though he had no reason to. Shepard had showed him what it was like to have someone truly care about you, and knowing that he’d never again have someone who trusted him inherently and never ask for anything in return was what made his chest hurt the most.

 **Saying Goodbye**  
They saw each other again at the memorial. Their little group looking out of place amongst the crowd of humans and the few turian C-Sec. The salarian STG from Virmire was also there as were the miscellaneous people Shepard had saved, or let live for a couple of them. Even with the small fraction of non-humans in the crowd, they still seemed like they didn’t belong; a turian, a krogan, a quarian, an asari and a human all standing in a small group off to the side. Under any other circumstance it would have been amusing to see the krogan awkwardly try to comfort the sobbing quarian standing next to him and the turian looking like a deer in headlights as the asari clung to him. If it was anywhere but a funeral, it would have made even an elcor smile. But it was and it gave no one amusement.  
  
All of them knew they looked it of place. But right now they didn’t care. They had just lost a good friend and Wrex almost wanted someone to come over and comment so he could hit something. Liara was clinging to Garrus’ arm with her face pressed against the turian’s outer bicep like a life raft or anchor; keeping her from being swept away in her grief and sadness. Tali was standing next to the asari and krogan hugging her arms to her chest and crying. The funeral was more for show than actual remembrance of Andrew. Surviving members of the attack spoke a bit on Shepard, never revealing too much or omitting details from stories; letting Andrew keep his badass image even in death. Joker was one of the first to speak after all the formalities were done.  
“Shepard was… I don’t even know where to begin. He was a hardass, but he was a good commander. He was a damn good soldier and he knew how to get the job done. Barking orders, expecting people do as he said. Anyone who’s met him knows that the way he carries himself commanded respect…” Joker paused for a moment and took a breath. “Shepard was a hardass and kind of a jerk at times, despite that he died to save me. And I can’t even thank him for it.” Joker left the podium and Dr. Chakwas took his place.  
“The Commander was always so reckless. Rushing into fights head first, drawing all the attention toward himself. He had a way of making the enemies focus on him instead of his teammates. Of course it ended up with him being injured far too much.” A light chuckle went through the crowd. “Commander Shepard would always insist it was ‘just a flesh wound’ even when he broke a bone. He was a terrible patient, but I’m proud to call him my friend.” One by one crew members went to the podium to speak for a bit and left. Ashley was the one who started off the chain of the squad members speaking.  
“Shepard found me on Eden Prime after the rest of the 212 were killed by the Geth. He had no reason to take me with him and he had no reason to request my service on the Normandy, but he did. The Commander saved my life on Virmire. I’ll always be grateful to him for that.” Ashley smiled softly as she continued. “Because of Commander Shepard I was a part of something that I couldn’t even have dreamed of.” The gunnery chief looked toward their strange group standing to the right and forward a bit from the corner of the stage. “And I made some good friends along the way. I don’t know anyone else who could have done half the things he did. He had a knack for getting us out of seemingly impossible situations, an impressive ability to strategize, and he was great at improvising.”  
Before he could really think about it Garrus spoke up just loud enough for the whole crowd to hear him. “He couldn’t drive worth a damn, though.” Just like that it was as if whatever was keeping them silent broke.  
“His driving was still better than his aim with that thing.” Wrex chuckled. “He had more luck killing enemies by running over them than using the gun.”  
“I’m not sure what was worse, his driving or his shooting. He was normally quite good at aiming, but as soon as he got into that monstrosity he could barely hit anything smaller than a mountain.” Tali added with amusement seeping into her voice even through the suit.  
“He wasn’t _aiming_ at the mountains as I recall, he was driving up them at almost 90 degree angles,” Liara chimed in.  
Ashley let out a small chuckle from where she stood at the podium. “Commander Shepard was great soldier, a great leader, and a great friend. And it was a huge honour to have served under him.” The service died down after that and the crowd began thinning out. The Normandy’s crew was among the last to leave.  
“I guess… this is goodbye,” Tali’s voice was soft and tinged with sadness.  
“Hmph. I guess so. Can’t believe I’m saying it, but I’m gonna miss you lot,” Wrex replied.  
Liara looked to their group of mis-matched races. “I’ll try and keep in touch with you all.”  
“If we happen to be in the same area I’ll be sure to stop by,” Garrus told her with amusement.  
  
None of them would end up seeing each other until two years later. It wasn’t long after the memorial that Garrus vanished without a trace. He broke his promise to keep in touch and none of them knew he was gone for a long time.  
Liara would call the others every now and then; when months had passed and she wasn’t able to get through to any of them she stopped trying. She kept tabs on the others just in case and was the first to know that Garrus had disappeared. It was almost a year before she found him and it was by chance through a report from one of her contacts.  
Tali had returned from her pilgrimage with valuable data on the Geth. She was welcomed on to the Neema and was eventually named the leader of a small squad. Her focus went back to being solely on the fleet. Each time the asari called she was tempted to answer. She couldn’t bring herself to actually do it.  
Wrex was re-building the krogan homeworld from the ground up. The other clans fought him every step of the way, but he didn’t let them get in his way. The first time his omnitool pinged with a call from his old crew he ignored it and each time after that. When the calls stopped coming he decided it was better that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poem used in Ashley's section is from Ulysses, which she specifically references in the first game.


	3. Death Doesn't Let You Say Goodbye

When Hackett gave him the coordinates of the SR-1 he wasn’t sure if he would go back. The dog tags, though… there were 20 people whose families have nothing left of them. He was doing it for them. Even back when he was chasing after Saren he never left without some of his squad mates there, even if it was just running errands around the Citadel. But this he had to do alone. Garrus and Tali wouldn’t have thought twice about accompanying him to the frozen wasteland of Alchera. For that reason he couldn’t bring them. The last time they were on the SR-1 was when they were dropped off after Sovereign went down. They didn’t need their memories tainted by the scattered remains of twisted metal that they had once called home for months. The first tag he found within moments of stepping out of the shuttle, lying only a few feet away, the metal plate felt heavy in his hand as he put it into the small bag he brought for any he found.

For all the damage the ship had sustained, the port side armor plating had survived mostly intact. The black color of the metal stood out starkly against the white and blues that covered the rest of the area. An image of the last time he’d seen it flashed through his mind, the Citadel as the picture’s backdrop. The cockpit was also largely still in one piece, even if that piece wasn’t attached to the rest. If he ignored the snow falling around him and the silence, Andrew could almost see Joker sitting there manning the controls. He began heading back to the shuttle as his chest tightened and his heart beat faster. He couldn’t do this. It was too much. He glanced down at the bag of dog tags, not even half of the missing 20 inside it. Andrew took a deep breath and opened the door of the shuttle, stepping out into the snow-covered graveyard.

The next thing he came across was the ruins of the mess hall. The section where Kaidan had set himself up was clearly visible and the feeling of his chest being squeezed came back tenfold. For everyone else it had been 2 years. 2 years of being able to accept it and move on. For him it felt like only a scant few months since Virmire. Since he had to choose between two of his friends. He walked over to where the Lieutenant would always stand. Kaidan’s face flashed through his mind; conversations they’d had and missions they’d been on. The memories forced a choked sound from his throat as his eyes began to sting. With everything that happened his friend’s death hadn’t quite sunk in yet. Now standing in what was left of the place they’d shared stories and became friends the tidal wave of grief was hitting him full-force. Andrew sunk to his knees on the cold metal flooring when they could no longer hold him up. The choked sound forced its way out of his throat again, finally recognizing it for what it was.  
“Commander, your vital signs indicate you are in distress. Do you need assistance?” EDI’s voice came through the comm in his helmet.  
“N-no. I’m fine.” Even to himself the sentence sounded weak, but the AI appeared to take his word and didn’t respond. Shepard was thankful for that bit of mercy.

When Andrew found the Mako he wasn’t expecting it to be intact. There wasn’t any damage to indicate the ship that carried it had been destroyed. That only made so much easier to picture it down in the cargo bay; Garrus beside it fixing whatever damage it had acquired, Wrex standing beside the lockers looking the part of a bored bodyguard, Ashley in the corner cleaning the guns and making sure they all worked properly. He reached up and ran his hand along the side of the vehicle. His fingers brushed along the door’s handle and before he could think about it he pulled the door open, the years worth of ice making the task difficult but still doable.. The rocks underneath doing little to either help or hinder him as he climbed into the front seat. Andrew ran his hands along the steering wheel, the voices of his squad drifting through his mind.  
_“Commander, I don’t think the Mako can climb that. Maybe we should find a route that isn’t so… steep?”_ Kaidan.  
_“What are you doing?! Are you trying to get us all killed? Keelah, if you keep doing that you’ll drive us into the lava!”_ Tali.  
_“Could you at least try not driving like a maniac?”_ Garrus.  
_“Shepard, you know you’re supposed to actually hit something when you shoot the gun, right?”_ Wrex.  
_“Commander, can you do me a favor and never take me on a Mako mission ever again?”_ Ashley.  
_“Shepard, if you keep doing that you’re going to flip us over!”_ Liara.  
Andrew’s hand reached toward the ignition, pausing just before he could start the engine. He pulled his hand back slightly before steeling his nerves. The Mako sputtered and clicked, but refused to start. If he was being honest, Andrew didn’t actually expect it to.

Seeing the CIC in its current state was harder than he thought. Pressly’s datapad was lying on the floor, most of the data corrupted but a small portion of it survived. The XO flashed through his mind in a permanent salute. The final dog tag lay not far from the datapad. He picked it up and placed it in the bag with the other 19 he’s found. He stood for a moment among the swirling snow, looking at the remains of the galaxy map before he spoke, mostly to himself.  
“The commanding officer is onboard, XO Pressly stands permanently relieved,” he said, hoping his voice didn’t crack too badly. Andrew turned to go back to the shuttle when the glint of something caught his eye. He made his way along the ledge to where he thought he saw the object. The walls he’d build up had been slowly chipped away at since he landed on the frozen landscape came crashing down as he found another relic that was lost in the snow. It’s black metal and cracked face plate stared back at him as he collapsed to the ground. Until now he’d known he died, remembered the feeling of his body shutting down as he struggled for air and the heat as he began falling toward the planet’s surface. But he could push it into a box in the back of his mind and leave it there, pretend that it didn’t happen, that it was all some elaborate nightmare. And now in his hands was the proof that he couldn’t deny. His chest tightened and it felt as if he was back in the vacuum of space, he gasped for breath even as tears spilled down his cheeks. The sadness overwhelmed him, threatening to drown him in its endless abyss. Everything he’d shoved into that box spilled over; Kaidan, Pressly, the 20 crew members he couldn’t save, their voices whispering and cursing his name.  
_“Shepard?”_  
Relentless.  
_“Shepard?”_  
Accusing.  
_“Shepard?”_  
Unforgiving.  
“Shepard!” A hand grabbed his shoulder and jolted him out of his head. His head whipped around to see Garrus standing there. “Why-” the question fell dead.  
“EDI notified Joker when your vitals started spiking,” Garrus answered with a shrug. “Come on. You’ll freeze if you stay out here much longer.”  
Andrew let the turian help him to his feet. Shepard gave his friend a look as they flew the shuttle back to the Normandy, silently asking the other to never mention what happened. Garrus’ responding expression told Andrew he wouldn’t breathe a word to anyone. If he spent the rest of the day in the battery with the turian and talking until he passed out, that was his business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone who knows where the title comes from gets brownie points.
> 
> 4/28/2019 - Quick edit made!


	4. Mordin's Choice

_"Had to be me."_  
"Someone else might have gotten it wrong." Andrew whispered the last part of the phrase as the elevator doors closed. His eyes burned with the sadness and regret that threatened to spill over. This time he didn’t bother trying to fight it, there was no one around to know anyway. Once again he was forced to kill one of his friends, indirectly but it was his fault nonetheless. At the time he thought his decision was the right one, but watching as the elevator climbed higher and higher, taking Mordin closer to his death, Andrew knew it was the wrong one. He hadn’t thought about what destroying the data meant, and he ended up hurting one of his oldest friends. Wrex was furious with him, rightfully so. In that lab on Tuchanka he didn’t think about the effect it would have on his friend. If he had, his choice would have been vastly different. And now because of that choice, Mordin was walking to his death. The noise of the Shroud collapsing as the Reaper and Kalros fought covered up the scream of rage and heartbreak as he allowed himself to grieve for his friend. His voice was hoarse and his throat sore by the time he was able to slip the mask back into place. The others had enough to worry about without him adding to it. Besides it was his own fault for getting attached to everyone on the ships as they fought against impossible odds; forging a bond by the blood of the enemies they killed and the battlefields they fought across. But now there was another hole in their ranks that couldn’t be filled. And he only had himself to blame.


	5. The Ammo Master

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick break from the angst

_Of course_ it had to be Garrus with him when he went down to practice with his different ammunitions. **And of fucking course** that idiot turian had to spread around that he was proficient with ammo varieties outside what others with his training usually bothered with. The crew had immediately picked up on the whole thing, and started calling him _The Ammo Master_ jokingly behind his back. He played along, knowing that thinking they were getting away with it improved crew morale, and despite the tough face he put on in front of them, he didn’t want his crew to get space fever over the surprisingly long journeys between galaxies and planets. Then he slipped up and referred to himself with that stupid nickname as he took down an Atlas in under a minute, ‘Don’t mess with the master of ammo’, and just like that it stuck. It became a running joke through the crew, and Garrus of course kept a betting ring about whether or not Andrew would snap on some poor, unsuspecting fool down in engineering when they called him “Ammo Master” in hushed, reverent tones. Yes, he knew about the betting ring. The crew weren’t exactly subtle when he went anywhere near engineering, holding their breath and their wallets. Well, it wasn’t like they knew he wasn’t as bad as he looked. His time alone on the tough streets on Earth had taught him that if you acted tough, you were more likely to be left alone by the other gangs. He chuckled quietly to himself as he watched a newbie walk up to his door and read the sticky note that had been put up by Joker, covering the nameplate on the door that read, in hastily scribbled crayon, “The Ammo Master’s Den”. The new crew member’s eyes widened almost comically when Andrew stepped through the door, and he had to refrain from laughing out loud.

“Welcome aboard the Normandy.” Andrew said instead of laughing at the poor man's expression, watching as the newbie squeaked out a greeting of his own, intimidated by Andrew’s default expression of a scowl and usual gruff demeanor. The new guy flicked his gaze between Andrew’s face and the sticky note a few times, obviously trying to reconcile the crayon scrawl with the intimidating, scarred figure in front of him. Andrew had to fight back a grin, before he turned to pretend to look at what was distracting the newbie. After a moment he just shook his head, snatched the note off the wall, and muttered “Kasumi…” He crumpled up the note and tossed in a nearby bin, knowing a new one would be up before too long. His mental grin grew wider as the newbie looked at him in awe. Then Joker’s voice came crackling in over the loudspeaker. “Commander ‘Ammo Master’, sir, I’ve got the council on comm. They say they’d like a report.” The newbie looked at the nearest speaker, alarmed that the other crew members would be so casual with their commanding officer, but Andrew knew it was only because Joker was one of the Normandy’s longest standing crew members that the pilot was so casual. The newer members only knew Andrew as a scowling, angry looking soldier who often skirted the line between acceptable and inhumane. The crew members who had been on the Normandy longer, however, knew the truth of their commander’s softer side. Andrew rolled his eyes fondly and moved to the comm room, nodding at some of his squadmates on the way.


End file.
